Pandemic

Swollen rivers caused by heavy spring rainfall have inundated residential areas in the cities and villages of provinces of Hormozgan, Fars, Bushehr, Qom, Gilan, Kerman, and Sistan and Baluchestan, already overwhelmed by the Corona outbreak.

While C19 continues to wreak havoc across Iran, Iran’s Emergency Medical Service announced on Monday that flooding caused by torrential rains in several provinces has killed at least 12 people and injured 17 people.

Now it is Latin America’s turn to face the pain of the COVID-19 storm that has spread west across the globe.

In Brazil, the health service is ill-prepared. In truth it is already overwhelmed. Since they can’t fight this virus, they are digging instead thousands upon thousands of graves in the city of Sao Paulo.

The pictures filmed for Sky News by cameraman Eduardo Duwe at the Vila Formosa cemetery, the largest in Latin America, are simply staggering.

More than 13,000 graves are being dug. From the air, the enormity of this digging operation is astonishing. Grave after grave stretches as far as the eye can see.

This is a public cemetery, mainly used by the poorest families. In Sao Paulo, the poorest areas are being hit the worst.

Medical workers across Brazil haven’t given up hope, but there is no battle, no real war on the virus, and they are facing defeat.

The graves are perhaps a symbol of the failure to contain, and the failure to lock down.

In full hazmat gear, the grave diggers and burial teams struggle over the freshly dug earth, while grieving family members follow behind.

Behind the gates of Vila Formosa

She told us what it was like when she entered the gates of Vila Formosa.

“It was a tense and deeply sad atmosphere, but also there was this rush. Everything was at a very fast pace, something you don’t expect to see at a funeral site,” she said.

“Arrival, document checking and then if there was space they would grant the family some minutes to mourn, otherwise the coffin was just taken by a van immediately to the grave.

“No time for a prayer or anything, no time for goodbyes, no chance to see your loved one for one last time.

“Families were standing at the site surrounded by open graves. It was devastating. When it was done, another family would then take their position on the next grave and the process would start again,” Marcia explained.

And this is only the first infection cycle. Let’s wait for the second run… Catastrophic. More pandemic news

Number of global coronavirus cases passes 4 million

Globally, more than 281,000 have died from the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus, with the number of confirmed infections surpassed four million. More than 1.3 million people have recovered.

As the novel coronavirus continued to spread globally Thursday, in the United States the number of confirmed cases doubled. The dramatic increase stems in part from more testing, but also indicates how much the virus has spread.

On Tuesday, there were just more than 5,700 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States. That number climbed above 11,500 on Thursday, and officials indicated the number will continue to rise sharply as more test results become available.

India barred incoming commercial flights for a week, and Australia and New Zealand closed their borders to everyone except citizens and residents. The United Arab Emirates went further, stopping expatriate residents from returning to the country. Meanwhile, Italy is extending lockdown measures

Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to use aggressive measures, community mobilisation and social distancing to save lives.

Several European countries have reported steep rises in infections and deaths in recent days.

What is the situation in Spain?

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez discussed the emergency measures at a meeting of his cabinet in Madrid. The restrictions are expected to come into force at 08:00 (07:00 GMT) Monday.

All public transport would be cut back with airline, train, bus and boat operators told they need to cut their services by at least half and that any plane, train, bus or other means of transport can only be a third full, Reuters news agency reports.

The interior ministry would control all police forces, including those at local and regional level.

Adding to the drama, Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias broke his own quarantine - which he went into after coming into contact with an infected colleague - to attend Saturday's talks.

It had not been possible for Mr Iglesias, who did not test positive for the virus, to attend remotely and his presence was agreed with the government after sanitary measures were taken, government sources told Efe news agency.

Two other ministers who are ill with coronavirus, Irene Montero and Carolina Darias, did not attend.

This will be the second state of emergency in the country since the transition to democracy began in 1975, the first being a 2010 air traffic controllers' strike.

Some measures have already been enforced at local level. The authorities in Madrid and its surrounding area have ordered the closure of most bars, restaurants and shops.

Shops selling foodstuffs, pharmacies and petrol stations are exempt. Similar measures have been brought in elsewhere, including the regions of Galicia and Catalonia.

The mayor of the southern city of Seville said he had suspended the famous Easter processions.

Catalan regional leader Quid Torra has said he wants to seal off the whole region, and has asked the authorities in Madrid to block access by air, rail and sea.

On Thursday the region's authorities locked down four towns north of Barcelona with a high number of cases.

Just over a week ago, the worldwide death toll linked to the coronavirus stood at around 50,000 — a staggering sum for a virus that was still largely unknown to the world at the start of the year. Now, that death toll has doubled.

As of Friday afternoon ET, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University showed the global death toll at just over 100,000 and the number of confirmed cases worldwide at more than 1.6 million. A handful of Western European countries — particularly Italy, the United States, Spain, France and the United Kingdom — so far have felt the brunt of the disease's deadly effects, combining to make up roughly half the global death toll.

But nearly every country in the world has reported at least one confirmed case of the virus within its borders. That includes some nations with debilitated health infrastructures, such as civil war-ravaged Yemen and Syria, where health authorities and humanitarian activists fear conditions are ripe for the coronavirus's spread.

The U.S. has struggled with the world's largest reported outbreak by far — confirmed cases in the hundreds of thousands across the country and more than 5,100 deaths clustered in New York City alone.

On Thursday, the World Health Organization said it had been 100 days since the group was notified about the first confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

The group's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a briefing that much has become clear since the first cases surfaced — as a disease with a fatality rate 10 times that of influenza "has overwhelmed health systems, disrupted the global economy, and lead to widespread social disruption."

"This pandemic is much more than a health crisis. It requires a whole-of government and whole-of-society response," Tedros said.

"In the last 100 days, COVID-19 has shown us the damage it can mete out in wealthy nations. We are yet to see the devastation it could wreak in poorer and more vulnerable countries. We're committed to doing everything we can to prevent that from happening."

Italy’s total number of deaths now stands and 4,032. Infections rose by nearly 6,000 to 47,021.

The nation of 60 million currently accounts for 36.6 percent of the world’s coronavirus deaths after surpassing China’s total on Thursday.

The soaring numbers come despite a national lockdown that drastically limits when residents are allowed to leave their homes. Police have issued citations to thousands of people for being out and about without valid reasons, such as going to work or shopping for food.

Mayors and governors throughout the country have been demanding even stricter measures. Italy’s national government is widely expected to respond soon.

For days now, Italian authorities have said at daily briefings that the virus outbreak that emerged in northern Italy four weeks ago could reach its peak in a matter of days and the number of new infections might start going down.

“There are so many people walking around who have the virus and who are at risk of infecting others,” Matteo Bassetti, the director of the infectious diseases department at Genoa’s San Martino clinic, told Italy’s AGI news agency.

“The 40,000 cases we are talking about could actually be 100 times higher.”

The Italian government intends to extend a ban on public gatherings and the shutdown of almost all businesses past their March 25 deadline.

Regional leaders and city mayors are urging the Italian government to adopt even tougher restrictions such as a ban on outdoor exercises and the closure of all stores on Sundays.

Americans across the country have started taking matters into their own hands. Due to worries about food shortages because of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people are cultivating home gardens to remain self-sufficient. However, the demand for garden seeds seems to have overwhelmed seed companies, who are quick to reassure buyers that there is no shortage of seeds.

Pandemic garden

While it is admirable that more people are finally seeing the benefits of planning and preparing — the way preppers have for years — by starting their own “pandemic gardens,” there’s just one problem: some seed companies report that they have had to temporarily stop accepting new orders after “an overwhelming surge in demand.”

One such company is Burpee Seeds, an established seed company in Pennsylvania, which was closed to new orders in the second week of April to ensure that it had enough time to replenish their seed supplies. Burpee Seeds resumed accepting customers again on April 15.

Due to coronavirus lockdowns, most Americans are stuck at home to prevent the further spread of the disease. To pass the time, people are starting various home-based activities, which also helped boost the sales of home improvement goods, alcohol and gardening supplies.

Emily Rose Haga, executive director of the Seed Savers Exchange, an Iowa-based nonprofit devoted to heirloom seeds, explained that the surge in demand for garden seeds could stem from citizens being worried about food security. She said that many people in certain regions have had to put orders into their grocery stores and that their groceries take at least one week to arrive. This is the first time that American society has experienced a disruption like this.

Struggling food banks and pantries

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, many Americans are having trouble finding food.

Feeding America, the largest network of food banks in the U.S., reported a 98 percent surge in demand.

Janet Shamlian, a CBS This Morning correspondent, reported that the need could be “most critical in rural America.” Unfortunately, some pantries in rural communities had no choice but to close since food is scarce. The volunteers who staff pantries have also expressed concern for their own well-being.

Seed Savers Exchange first noticed an increase in orders in mid-March. Demand skyrocketed within the next two weeks. To date, the nonprofit is trying to catch up on the backlog.

Haga noted that Seed Savers Exchangeexperienced a 200 percent increase in the number of orders they usually receive. Moreover, the company, which originally had around 60 employees, had to hire 16 new workers to help handle the sudden influx of sales.

There’s no seed shortage

Despite the sudden increase in orders for garden seeds, George Ball, chairman of Burpee Seeds, insists that people shouldn’t be worried about a shortage since people aren’t hoarding seeds.

Ball explained that on a normal day, seeds are weighed, packaged and sent to stores. But when the pandemic hit, seed companies didn’t have enough pre-packaged packets to meet the orders.

Since coronavirus spread throughout the country at the start of the spring, the demand for seeds for “pandemic gardens” proved too much to handle for seed companies.

Despite the lack of available seeds, home gardeners are willing to help each other gain access to seeds. For example, Molly Jones, a 47-year-old from Texas, offered her extra seeds to fellow gardeners on Twitter.

Jones previously stocked up on seeds because she had planned on starting a garden with her sister’s children. She believes Americans are starting vegetable gardens at home for two reasons: To grow food and to relieve stress over the pandemic.

Despite the worrisome circumstances, Jones is grateful for the chance to help others. “If they can see more acts of generosity than the bad things going on, it’ll help them get through it,” she said.

What home gardeners are looking for

Seed companies shared that there is a particular demand for early-season crops like lettuce and peas. Buyers are also clamoring for staple crops like beans, which can be dried and consumed later.

Onion seeds are also in demand. Home cooks may be looking for more ingredients now that people are dining at home.

Ball urged would-be gardeners to be patient if they can’t place orders since Burpee Seedsand other seed companies must temporarily stop accepting new orders to clear the pending ones.

He concluded that home gardeners shouldn’t worry if they can’t start planting immediately, especially since gardeners have at least a five-week window to plant, starting from mid-April to June 1.

Food scrap gardening tips

Basil – Take several four-inch stems from a bunch of basil, then use a sharp knife to strip all leaves from about 75 percent of each stem. Place the stems in a jar of water. After the roots grow to about two inches in length, plant the individual stems in a four-inch pot with garden soil.

Cabbage – Place the cabbage base and leaves in a bowl, then add a bit of water at the bottom. After roots and new leaves start to appear, transplant the cabbage into your garden.

Garlic sprouts – You can grow garlic sprouts or garlic greens from a clove or bulb. Place a budding clove or a whole bulb in a small cup or bowl, then add enough water to cover the bottom of the container. The water must reach the bottom of the cloves, but don’t submerge the bulb.

Onion – Keep the bottom part of any onion with roots and place it in a shallow bowl with water. Alternatively, you can try planting an onion base directly into your garden.

If you can’t order seeds right now, there are alternative ways to grow vegetables in your home garden so you can still have access to fresh food during these uncertain times.

The number of novel coronavirus cases around the world is over 328,000 worldwide with Italy and the United States behind China as the countries with the most cases of COVID-19 infections, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

The number of U.S. cases has surpassed 31,000, and as the number rises, some states are acting quickly by ordering variations of stay-at-home orders for residents. Oregon issued such an order on Friday night, joining states that include California, Illinois and New York.

The respiratory virus, known officially as COVID-19, has reached every continent except Antarctica, and every state in America since emerging in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December.

Globally, there are at least 14,356 coronavirus-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. More than 95,000 people have recovered worldwide.

The National Guard will be deployed to assist in the fight against the coronavirus in the hard-hit states of New York, California and Washington, President Donald Trump announced.

The move, announced at Sunday evening's briefing of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, will include delivery of medical supplies and the establishment of medical stations in those states.

"The federal government will be funding 100% of the cost to deploy National Guard units to carry out approved missions to stop the virus while those governors remain in command," Trump said. "I spoke with all three of the governors today, just a little while ago, they're very happy with what we're doing."

Pete Gaynor of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said that medical supplies, including personal protective equipment, will be arriving in the affected states within 42 hours.

Members of the task force said that 254,000 Americans have been tested for COVID-19, with 30,000 of those -- 11.8% -- testing positive.

According to commercial testing labs, the U.S. should be caught up on the backlog in testing by midweek, officials said.

Following the announcement this afternoon by Sen. Rand Paul that he had contracted the coronavirus, there are now five U.S. senators under self-quarantine.

Sen. Mitt Romney said that he had quarantined himself after having contact with Sen. Paul.

“Since Senator Romney sat next to Senator Paul for extended periods in recent days and consistent with CDC guidance, the attending physician has ordered him to immediately self-quarantine and not to vote on the Senate floor," a Romney spokesperson said in a statement. "He has no symptoms but will be tested. He urges members to pass a relief package as quickly as possible that provides assistance for families, workers, and small businesses.”

Sen. Mike Lee is also under quarantine after coming in contact with Sen. Paul.

Sens. Rick Scott and Cory Gardner were already under self-quarantine after coming into contact with diplomatic delegations whose members had tested positive.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced they will be cracking down on large gatherings that linger in city parks, to prevent COVID-19 exposure.

The order comes after reports of people interacting too closely in parks over the weekend, despite a shelter-in-place order by the mayor. Cops will be in cars, bikes and other vehicles with a speaker, alerting parkgoers not to linger, and if crowds get too big, the officers will break them up, according to de Blasio and Shea.

The mayor said they will run this policy for a week, and reassess their procedures.

"If we feel people aren't following the rules... we will consider shutting [parks] down," he warned.

As of Sunday morning, New York City had 9,654 confirmed coronavirus cases, de Blasio said.

Earlier in the day, Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked the mayor to come up with a plan to reduce the density in parks and suggested that the city close certain streets to vehicular traffic and allow pedestrians.

De Blasio said he is mulling over closing the streets and will codify their plans in the next 24 hours, but warned that such a plan would require a gradual phase-in and strict police enforcement.

"If you put barriers at the end of a block and everyone comes out like it’s normal, we can’t have that,” the mayor said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gone into self-quarantine after she was exposed to the virus, according to her office.

The chancellor learned that a doctor who administered a precautionary pneumonia vaccine on Friday afternoon tested positive for COVID-19, her office said.

"In the next days she will be regularly tested in the coming days, as a test now would not yet be fully conclusive. From her quarantine at home, the Chancellor will continue to attend to her official business," a spokeswoman said in a statement.

Shortly before she learned about the exposure, Merkel issued an order earlier in the day that barred social gatherings of more than two people with the exemptions of families and people living in the same household. The order will be in effect for two weeks.

The International Olympic Committee's executive board said it will step up its planning for possible scenarios for the 2020 summer games in Tokyo.

The committee emphasized that it has no current plans to cancel the games, but said it will be discussing different options with its planning partners, including postponing the Olympics from its July 24 start date.

"The IOC is confident that it will have finalized these discussions within the next four weeks," the committee said in a statement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a new order that bans social gatherings of more than two people.

Families and people living in the same household are exempt from the order, which will be in effect for at least two weeks.

“We are further reducing public life and social contact and ensuring that the measures will be nationwide,” the chancellor said at a news conference. “Everyone should organize their movements according to these regulations.”

Germany has 23,974 COVID-19 cases, the fourth highest outside of China, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Italy, which has the highest number of coronavirus fatalities outside of China, said there were 651 deaths recorded in in the last 24 hours, according to the country’s Civil Protection Agency.

The total number of fatalities in the country is now 5,476, the agency said.

Italy has 53,578 confirmed cases, 5,560 of which are newly recorded.

Emirates reversed a plan made earlier Sunday that would have suspended all of its flights this week.

The airline initially said Sunday morning that it would suspend all commercial flights on March 25, and only operate its cargo ships due to coronavirus concerns. Later in the day, Emirates tweeted it received several requests from world leaders who said they needed flights to repatriate its citizens, and the airline changed its course, allowing some flights to continue.

The airline apologized to passengers for the inconvenience and said it will monitor the situation closely.

Spain’s Health Ministry announced that it recorded 394 coronavirus deaths on Saturday, bringing the country’s total death count to 1,720.

The country has now surpassed Iran for the third largest number of COVID-19 deaths.

As of Sunday, Spain had 28,572 confirmed cases of the virus, with 3,646 confirmations made in the last 24 hours.

The government said it would take immediate actions to stop the spread of the virus including restricting flights to diplomats, repatriation of travelers, healthcare workers and flights that layover in Spain's airports.

Pharmaceutical company Merck said it will donate half a million masks to New York City’s Office of Emergency Management.

The city has over 9,000 cases of COVID-19 as of Sunday morning and elected officials said they are in desperate need of protective material for first responders and medical professionals.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and other leaders to come up with a plan to reduce density in parks, after he saw large gatherings in the green spaces over the weekend.

Cuomo called the crowds at the parks "reckless," "arrogant" and "selfish" because of the greater risk and said the city needed to take immediate action. He gave the mayor and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson 24 hours to come up with a plan and suggested they consider closing some streets to vehicular traffic and open it up to pedestrians.

"Get creative. Open up the streets" he said at a news conference.

Cuomo later said he had the power to make that move, however he didn't know the full situation about the density of the parks and would defer the planning to local leaders.

De Blasio's office did not have an immediate comment about the governor's call to action. Johnson tweeted that he supported closing down streets.

"We must #StopTheSpread. The @NYCCouncil will do all we can to make this happen," he tweeted.

Cuomo said there were 15,168 positive coronavirus cases in the state, with more than 9,000 within New York City. The governor announced said there are plans to open up spaces to treat patients, including the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan, and the state would be undergoing trials for a malaria drug that could treat the disease.

Pope Francis announced he will be holding two major events of prayer this week to respond to the pandemic with "a universal prayer of compassion and tenderness."

During his Sunday noontime prayer, Francis called on the heads of all Christian churches and Christians across the world to recite the "Our Father" prayer at the same time on Wednesday, the feast of the Annunciation, at noon.

The pope will also will preside over a moment of prayer on the steps of St Peter’s Basilica to the empty square Friday at noon. The services will include the Urbi et Orbi, to the City [of Rome] and to the World, blessing, which is normally recited during Easter and Christmas.

During an appearance on ABC's "This Week," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy stressed that his state and others in the northeast region needed more assistance from the federal government to fight the pandemic.

Murphy told co-anchor Martha Raddatz that New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania needed $100 billion direct cash assistance to fight against the pandemic. Specifically, he said the states needed more personal protective equipment, or PPE.

"We are in desperate for more PPE," Murphy said. "We’ve had a big ask into the strategic stockpile on the White House -- they’ve given us a fraction of our ask."

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Peter Gaynor said on ABC's "This Week," that medical masks began shipping yesterday from the national stockpile.

Gaynor could not provide an exact number of masks or a timeline as to when they will reach individual states.

"All those supplies to all the demands, all the asks, all the governance, every day, we are -- we're prepared to go to zero in the stockpile to meet demand," Gaynor said.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez ordered that all boat ramps and marinas in the city would be closed for recreational use after images and videos of boat parties in the area circulated online Saturday night.

Gimenez chastised organizers and partygoers for violating the city's orders that limit crowds to 10 or fewer.

"We are in a state of emergency, and I cannot stress enough the need for personal responsibility," he said in a statement.

Only fishing boats will be able to use the docks and sail into the waters under the new order, which will be enforced by police boats, Gimenez said.

Russia’s military is sending medical aid to Italy to help in its fight against the coronavirus epidemic, including disinfection vehicles and military virologists.

Russia’s defense ministry in a statement announced military transport planes will be delivering eight mobile brigades of military medics, special disinfection vehicles and other medical equipment to Italy, starting from Sunday.

It followed a phone conversation between president Vladimir Putin and Italy’s prime minister Giuseppe Conte, during which Putin offered help.

The move obviously highlights the EU’s relative failure so far to aid Italy in the epidemic and follows China sending a plane-load of medics to help. The authoritarian governments see this as a diplomatic and PR opportunity. Italy was already one of the friendliest countries to Russia in the EU and this obviously won’t go unremembered.

Saudi Arabia announced 48 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing the total to 392, with five of the new infections being healthcare workers in Riyadh, according to a health ministry spokesman.

All domestic flights, buses, taxis and trains in the Kingdom have been suspended for at least 14 days to help stem the spread of the coronavirus, an Interior Ministry official told the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan early on Sunday did his best to reassure his people about the nation’s efforts to control the coronavirus pandemic, saying Turkey is doing its duty to protect citizens. "I hope we will get over these difficult times together. Just follow the rules and guidance and also continue staying at homes," Erdogan posted on Twitter while reiterating that those older than 65 and anyone with a chronic disease should not go outside.

Turkey imposed a partial curfew on Saturday for senior citizens and those with chronic diseases, but stopped short of a blanket curfew. Earlier on Saturday, Turkey suspended flights from 46 additional countries and banned picnics and barbecues, as the number of cases has roughly doubled every day for the past week.

Turkey now has 947 confirmed cases of the virus, with 21 deaths.

Posting on his Instagram account Saturday night, Amazon's Jeff Bezos wrote a letter to all Amazon employees announcing that Amazon will be hiring for 100,000 new roles and raising wages for hourly workers while also detailing how the company plans on working through the crisis.

The New York Air Route Traffic Control Center and New York's LaGuardia Control Tower will now be closed overnight for sanitization, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

During this time other air traffic facilities will provide needed key services and some flights will be rerouted around the airspace, but the FAA expects a minimal impact on traffic since the volume during these hours is low.

Flights were briefly suspended at New York City and Philadelphia airports Saturday afternoon when an air traffic controller trainee at New York Air Route Traffic Control Center in Ronkonkoma, New York, tested positive for coronavirus.

More than 407,000 cases have been confirmed in 169 countries and regions, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

More than 18,000 deaths have been tallied worldwide since the outbreak began in December.

Health and state officials warned the pandemic is accelerating.

More than 104,000 people have recovered.

The number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases around the world has surpassed 400,000, according to datacompiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The map that tracks COVID-19 cases, built by the university’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering, showed more than 407,000 confirmed cases in 169 countries and regions as of Tuesday afternoon, with more than 18,000 deaths.

China, where the outbreak began in late December, still holds the largest number of cases overall, with more than 81,000 and more than 3,200 deaths.

Several other countries are experiencing a surge in confirmed cases, including Italy, which has the second largest number of cases overall at more than 69,000. Italy also is the country with the highest number of fatalities at more than 6,800.

The United States has surged to third in the total number of cases with more than 49,000 cases and more than 600 deaths.

On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the increasing pace of cases shows that the pandemic is accelerating.

“It took 67 days from the first reported case to reach the first 100,000 cases. 11 days for the second 100,000. And just four days for the third 100,000,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news conference.

The next two weeks will be crucial in the United States' fight against the coronavirus, warn health officials, who are urging Americans to continue practicing social-distancing measures.

"This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe," Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said Saturday. She added, "and that means everybody doing the six-feet distancing, washing your hands."

On Sunday, the number of cases nationwide climbed to at least 331,151, with at least 9,441 dead, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Of those deaths, 1,344 were reported Saturday -- the most fatalities recorded in the US in a single day.

Vice Admiral Jerome Adams, the US surgeon general, likened the coming week to a Pearl Harbor or 9/11 moment, saying on "Fox News Sunday" it would be the "hardest and the saddest week in most Americans' lives."

Meantime, appearing Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation," Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases conceded it "would be a false statement" to say the US has the pandemic under control.

A battle to stop the spread

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered a bit of good news in a news conference in Albany on Sunday, saying the number of deaths in his state has been dropping over the past few days for the first time.

The significance of that, he said, is "too early to tell." The number of new hospitalizations is also down, while the hospital discharge rate is up, Cuomo said.

Based on the data, Cuomo said the state is either near the apex of its curve "or the apex could be a plateau and we could be on that plateau right now."

"We won't know until we see the next few days," he said.

With 122,031 cases and at least 4,159 deaths, Cuomo warned that hospital systems are running on just a few days' supply of medical equipment.

Other states are coming to New York's aid, offering what supplies they can afford to give.

New York state will receive 140 ventilators from Oregon, Cuomo said Saturday in a news conference, adding the gesture was both "kind" and "smart." China is donating another 1,000 ventilators, Cuomo said.

"Help New York today," Cuomo said Sunday. "And then nationally, we shift the resources to the next place that is most impacted."

Additional help is on the way from Washington state, which was the initial epicenter of the outbreak in the United States.

Because of mitigation efforts and the cooperation of residents, the state has seen fewer infections than it anticipated, Dr. Raquel Bono, director of the state's Covid-19 Health System Response Management, said in an news release.

Health workers walk with a patient outside of Mount Sinai Hospital, which has seen a surge of coronavirus patients.

As a result, Washington state will return more than 400 ventilators it received from the national stockpile to help other communities in need, Gov. Jay Inslee said.

"These ventilators are going to New York and other states hardest hit by this virus," Inslee said. "I've said many times over the last few weeks, we are in this together. This should guide all of our actions at an individual and state level in the coming days and weeks."

Washingtonians should still stay home, wash their hands and practice social distancing, the news release added.

"People have been so beautiful to us," Gov. Cuomo said. "And it is the New York way -- we're going to codify everything we've learned, and we get past this curve, whatever part of the country goes next, we will be there with equipment and personnel and however we can help."

States say the impact is not even halfway through

Several states have reported big jumps in cases, including Pennsylvania, which saw an increase of 1,494 cases, the governor's office said Sunday, bringing the statewide total to 11,510.

New Jersey reported another 3,482 cases on Sunday for a total of 37,505. At least 917 have died, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's office said.

The day prior, Murphy said the state had lost nearly 100 more of its residents to coronavirus than it did in 9/11.

"This pandemic is writing one of the greatest tragedies in our state's history," Murphy said.

After "multiple" conversations with the White House, Murphy on Sunday said the state had secured an additional 500 ventilators. He called them the state's No. 1 need.

Members of the international Christian humanitarian organization Samaritans' Purse gather at a field hospital in New York's Central Park.

Louisiana reported a 21% increase in cases on Saturday, bringing the total to 12,500 cases, according to the state health department.

"We are still very much in this," Dr. Joseph Kanter, assistant state health officer for the department, said in a news conference. "In fact we haven't even hit halfway."

New Orleans' coroner's office and mortuaries have reached their limit, said Mayor LaToya Cantrell, and she's asked the federal government for additional refrigeration. oOfficials are responding to the influx by converting a convention center into an emergency hospital.

"We now think it's probably around the 9th of April before we exceed our ventilator capacity based on the current number on hand, and... we're a couple of days behind that on ICU bed capacity being exceeded," he told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

A doctor from SOMOS Community Care prepares to test a patient at a drive-thru testing center for coronavirus.

Still other states continue to struggle with inaccessible testing.

California has been working to increase the number of its residents that have been tested, which stands now at more than 126,000,Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

"That testing number may sound high to some. It is low to many others and certainly to me," Newsom said in a news conference on Saturday.

The state formed a new task force led by leaders of the public and private sector to handle coronavirus testing as well as a partnership between University of California Davis and University of California San Diego to create at least five to seven testing hubs to increase capacity.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday his state doesn't even have enough tests to get a clear idea of the scale of the outbreak.

"Everything about the tests are very difficult to come by, and there's no federal plan for this, so every state is on their own," Pritzker said. "As I've said, it's the Wild West out here."

The White House released its first official models of the course of the coronavirus, and the C.D.C. said it was reviewing its guidance on wearing masks as new data suggests people with no symptoms are infecting others.

Right Now The top government scientists battling the coronavirus estimated on Tuesday that the deadly pathogen could kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans.

There are at least 811 new coronavirus deaths reported in the US on Tuesday

There have been at least 811 new coronavirus deaths reported in the US on Tuesday, according to a count from CNN Health.

This is the most reported deaths in the United States in a single day since the coronavirus outbreak began.

Models predicting expected spread of the virus in the U.S. paint a grim picture.

The top government scientists battling the coronavirus estimated Tuesday that the deadly pathogen could kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans, in spite of the disruptive social distancing measures that have closed schools, banned large gatherings, limited travel and forced people to stay in their homes.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, and Dr. Deborah L. Birx, who is coordinating the coronavirus response, displayed that grim projection at the White House on Tuesday, calling it “our real number” but pledging to do everything possible to reduce those numbers even further.

The conclusions generally match those from similar models by public health researchers around the globe.

As dire as those predictions are, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx said the number of deaths could be much higher if Americans do not follow the strict guidelines to keep the virus from spreading, and they urged people to take the restrictions seriously.

The data released on Tuesday was the first time that Mr. Trump’s administration has officially estimated the breadth of the threat to human life from the coronavirus, and the disease it brings, known as Covid-19. In the past several weeks, Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci have resisted predicting how many people might die in the pandemic, saying that there was not enough reliable data.

That is no longer, the case, they said. As of Tuesday afternoon, at least 173,741 people across every state, plus Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories, have tested positive for the virus, according to a New York Times database. At least 3,433 patients with the virus have died.

As many as 25 percent of people infected with the new coronavirus may not show symptoms.

In particular, the high level of symptom-free cases is leading the C.D.C. to consider broadening its guidelines on who should wear masks.

“This helps explain how rapidly this virus continues to spread across the country,” the director, Dr. Robert Redfield, told National Public Radio in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.

The agency has repeatedly said that ordinary citizens do not need to wear masks unless they are feeling sick. But with the new data on people who may be infected without ever feeling sick, or who are transmitting the virus for a couple of days before feeling ill, Mr. Redfield said that such guidance was “being critically re-reviewed.”

Researchers do not know precisely how many people are infected without feeling ill, or if some of them are simply presymptomatic. But since the new coronavirus surfaced in December, researchers have spotted unsettling anecdotes of apparently healthy people who were unwitting spreaders.

“Patient Z,” for example, a 26-year-old man in Guangdong, China, was a close contact of a Wuhan traveler infected with the coronavirus in February. But he felt no signs of anything amiss, not on Day 7 after the contact, nor on Day 10 or 11.

Already by Day 7, though, the virus had bloomed in his nose and throat, just as copiously as in those who did become ill. Patient Z might have felt fine, but he was infected just the same.

Researchers now say that people like Patient Z are not merely anecdotes. For example, as many as 18 percent of people infected with the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship never developed symptoms, according to one analysis. A team in Hong Kong suggests that from 20 to 40 percent of transmissions in China occurred before symptoms appeared.

The high level of covert spread may help explain why the novel coronavirus is the first virus that is not an influenza virus to set off a pandemic.

Asian countries see that success containing the virus can be tenuous, a worrisome sign.

Across Asia, countries and cities that seemed to have brought the epidemic under control are suddenly tightening their borders and imposing stricter containment measures, fearful about a wave of new infections imported from elsewhere.

The moves portend a worrisome sign for the United States, Europe and the rest of the world still battling a surging outbreak: Any country’s success with containment could be tenuous, and the world could remain on a kind of indefinite lockdown.

Even when the number of new cases starts to fall, travel barriers and bans in many places may persist until a vaccine or treatment is found. The risk otherwise is that the infection could be reintroduced inside their borders, especially given the prevalence of asymptomatic people who might unknowingly carry the virus with them.

Following a recent uptick in cases tied to international travelers, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan barred foreigners from entering altogether in recent days. Japan has barred visitors from most of Europe, and is considering denying entry to travelers from countries including the United States. South Korea imposed stricter controls, requiring incoming foreigners to quarantine in government facilities for 14 days upon arrival.

In China, international flights have been cut back so severely that Chinese students abroad wonder when they will be able to get home. In Singapore, recently returned citizens must share their phones’ location data with the authorities each day to prove they are sticking to government-ordered quarantines. In Taiwan, a man who had traveled to Southeast Asia was fined $33,000 for sneaking out to a club when he was supposed to be on lockdown at home.

“Even countries that have been relatively successful in managing the pandemic are only as safe as the weakest links in the system,” saidKristi Govella, an assistant professor of Asian studies at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, who added that in the absence of cooperation among countries, “closing borders is one of the ways that individual governments can control the situation.”

By the hundreds of thousands, Americans are asking for help for the first time in their lives, from nail technicians in Los Angeles to airport workers in Fort Lauderdale, from bartenders in Phoenix to former reality show contestants in Minnesota.

Biting back shame, and wondering guiltily about others in more dire straits, they are applying for unemployment, turning to GoFundMe, asking for money on Instagram, quietly accepting handouts from equally strapped co-workers, and showing up in unprecedented numbers at food banks, which in turn are struggling to meet soaring demand as volunteers, many of them retirees, stay home for safety.

The U.S. death toll passes China’s as questions mount about China’s statistics.

The United States’ coronavirus death toll has moved past China’s official count, a bleak milestone hours before the Trump administration planned to release the models that fueled fears that as many as 200,000 Americans could die because of the pandemic.

Although the count from mainland China — 3,305 deaths — has been a subject of intense skepticism, and although Italy and Spain have reported more than 20,000 fatalities between them, the swelling toll in the United States is a grim indication of the outbreak’s scale.

The U.S., despite widespread concerns about the availability of testing for the virus, already had the highest known number of infections in the world, and the American toll was at least 3,430 deaths, as of late Tuesday morning.

But there are mounting concerns that some countries, including China, North Korea and Indonesia, are not being forthcoming about the scope of their outbreaks.

China on Tuesday announced more than 1,500 coronavirus cases that had not previously been made public, giving in to pressure for greater transparency nearly two weeks after officials there first announced zero new local infections.

Questions about the accuracy of China’s numbers have circulated since the start of the outbreak there, even as the country has touted its apparent success in bringing it under control. The 1,541 newly announced cases were people who had tested positive but were asymptomatic, according to an official at China’s National Health Commission.

China had not previously included asymptomatic patients in its public tallies of confirmed cases, even though the World Health Organization recommends doing so, and many within China and abroad had expressed fear about the true scale of the epidemic.